It's All About Him
by AgiVega
Summary: Watching his daughter tend to the unconscious Avatar, Chief Hakoda realises something that Katara herself might not have realised.


Disclaimer: sadly I don't own Avatar. Some lines in this ficlet are quoted from ATLA season 3, episode 1, The Awakening.

Thanks to Michael for the beta.

**It's All About Him**

I haven't seen my little girl for over two years, and in all honesty I never imagined our reunion to happen at such a desperate hour – the Earth Kingdom fallen, the Avatar struck down, hope dying right before our eyes.

o

I know there is something amiss as soon as I hear my fellow warriors announce the sky bison's arrival. There was a sign of trouble yesterday, making my son leave without explanation, and I can't help but wonder what has happened this time. Could it have something to do with one of my children? Spirits, I hope not…

I run as quick as my legs would carry me, and by the time I reach the shore, the huge animal has already touched down.

Gasping for breath, I watch as Sokka and a short girl with black hair easily slide down the bison's side. A tall, bespectacled man dressed pompously enough to be a monarch lets out a yelp as he lands in the sand in an unceremonious fashion, only to be nearly squashed to death by a bear that makes an equally hapless landing. Sokka jerks the man out of the bear's way in the last second. A smile is beginning to form on my lips, but as I spot my little girl on the bison's head the almost-smile dies before it is even born.

She doesn't budge. She sits still like a marble statue, streaks of long-dried tears marring her face. I'm shocked to see how much she has grown, how her once childlike features have turned into those of a young woman. A young woman who doesn't even blink when her glance falls upon me, doesn't even yell in glee to finally meet her long-lost father. She remains calm, too calm, and silent. There is no sign of recognition in her stare. Are her eyes looking at me at all, or are they looking _through_ me? I'm not sure, but she scares me. Her eyes are hollow but her arms are full: she cradles the Avatar as though he were a rag doll, and, by the look of him, he probably is.

I reach up and so does Bato, offering to help the unconscious boy safely to the ground, but it takes several moments before Katara loosens her grip and lets us take hold of him. That is the first time I see emotion in her eyes. Despair. Fear. She doesn't say anything, but her glance speaks better than a thousand words: _be careful, he's badly hurt!_

o

We have captured an enemy ship and moved aboard, but Katara barely seems to notice the change of surroundings. She lives in her own little world; the world that consists of the two of them and the pouch of water on her hip.

She barely speaks for days, only answers when asked, and even then just a couple of words as if she believed that speaking would draw energies from her; energies she needs to commit entirely to healing.

She does everything in her power – by her haunted looks even stretches her limits – to save him. She sleeps by his side. Eats by his side. Only leaves his cabin for bathroom visits. I start to worry – not for the Avatar, he should be fine judging by the amount of attention my little girl is giving him – but for her. I have only seen her like this once before, when we lost Kya. I see the same determination blazing in her eyes, the same strict line of her lips pressed tightly together, the same silent message in her every move: _I will not give up! Not now, not ever!_

I'm just as worried about her as I was back then. Perhaps even more so. While her mother's death had steeled her, made her stronger, now I see her strength slipping. She used to cry a lot after Kya died. She used to be strong by day and cry by night when she thought no one saw or heard her.

She's not crying now. Not even in the first three or four days when the boy doesn't give a sign of ever leaving his coma – the only thing that shows he's still alive is the gentle, barely noticeable rise and fall of his chest and the occasional whimper he lets out in his deep, deep sleep.

Katara's trying to be strong, yet she's clearly not. He makes her weak. I can see it in the way she looks at him when she's not aware of being watched. I can see it in the way she jumps when I enter his cabin and catch her running her fingers through the short hairs he has sprouted. I can see it in the way she blushes and jerks her hand away as if those black hairs have pricked her. I expect the boy's hair must be thick and coarse due to constant shaving, but I doubt if it would truly prick anyone. If it did, my little girl wouldn't have appeared to enjoy its feel in the first place.

I apologise for intruding and she mutters that I wasn't intruding. But I know that I am. I have stumbled upon something intimate. Not that I have no idea _how_ intimate Katara must have got with him. I'm no fool. And neither are others on the ship. One day I overheard a conversation between Sokka and Toph, the blind girl whose witty remarks I have come to appreciate.

"Perhaps it doesn't bother you that she's practically living with him now like they were an old married couple, but don't try to convince me it doesn't bother you that she's seeing all of him on a regular basis."

"What do you mean?" Sokka asked.

I was standing just around the corner, they couldn't have seen me, though apparently Toph can hear a lot. She must have known I was there, but she didn't care. She doesn't seem to care about lots of things other people do.

"What?" Judging by Toph's intonation she would be rolling her eyes if she weren't blind. I'm not sure if blind people do that at all. "Come on, she's been feeding him whenever he wakes enough to be able to swallow anything, and guess what? That sort of thing results in a need to visit the bathroom. And he's currently incapable of that. Got it?"

"Eww," Sokka commented. "I really didn't need that mental image."

"Which one? Aang needing to be changed or your sister changing him?" Toph asked derisively.

I once again felt a smile creep up my face; both because of Toph's sarcasm and because of Katara's selflessness. My daughter is undoubtedly a wonderful nurse, but she takes a little too much on herself. When we offered to help her around the Avatar, she would shoo us away. She would say she could handle him perfectly on her own. I have no doubt that she can, but still…

"Well," my son replied, "the former, of course. A man should feel it beneath his dignity to be so helpless as to need such services of a woman."

"You sound like someone who's been in a situation like that before," Toph remarked.

Sokka paused.

"I can feel your heart rate skyrocketing, Snoozles! You know you can't lie to me, so out with it! I want to hear all the sordid details!"

"Okay, okay!" Sokka sighed in defeat. "It happened shortly after Dad and the warriors left our village. I went hunting alone and got stranded in a snow storm for days. When I finally got home, I came down with pneumonia. Gran-Gran and Katara took it in turns to tend to me. I nearly died of the illness, but I felt even closer to death when I came around and learned that those two, especially my baby sister, had to change me. For weeks, actually. Sheesh, I have no idea why I'm telling you this…"

"Because you know I love embarrassing stories!" Toph laughed, and by the sound of it she punched him in the arm.

I hadn't known before that my son had been so gravely ill while I was gone. I felt a heavy weight settle on my chest, only to be lifted slightly when he carried on, "So yeah, Katara's seen me naked… I mean, apart from old times when we were small kids. But I'm her big brother, so it's no big deal that she has. Aang is like a little brother to her, so what?"

Toph snorted. "If you want to believe she thinks of him as a little brother… well, whatever floats your boat…"

Sokka didn't reply to that. I imagine he started putting two and two together, but then the ship's chef announced dinner was ready, and my boy went racing down to the galley. I doubt if he's given the matter a second thought since. But I have. More than once, actually.

o

Days passed, and the Avatar got better and better, though his near-conscious periods still didn't last long. Sometimes he was awake for a couple of minutes, ate and drank – or rather, let himself be fed like a baby – but he never reached a level of consciousness that would allow him to talk. Katara said she wasn't even sure he knew it was her ladling soup into his mouth, his eyes seemed so blank. I saw the pain in hers, though. The pain of not being recognised by someone she cares for so deeply. I told her to give it time, and he would come around soon of his own accord.

And finally the time has come. Almost three weeks after his fall at Ba Sing Se, he suddenly stumbles on deck and refuses to believe he isn't still dreaming. I can understand that. Having awoken on an enemy ship how would he know at once that he's surrounded by friends? Questions pour out of his mouth, "Why are we on a Fire Nation ship? Why is everyone dressed this way? And why am I the only one who's completely out of it?"

"You need to take it easy, okay? You got hurt pretty bad," Katara tells him with a smile. I see her practically glowing with happiness now that he's awake. "I like your hair," she adds.

"I have hair?" the boy feels his head. "How long was I out?"

"A few weeks."

"Everything okay?" I ask and walk closer.

"We're fine, Dad," Katara gives me an annoyed look. I graciously ignore it and turn to the boy.

"I'm Hakoda, Katara and Sokka's father."

He reaches out to take my outstretched hand, but my girl stops him with a hand on his shoulder.

"He knows who you are. I just called you 'Dad', didn't I?"

I fight down the urge to raise an eyebrow. "I guess you're right."

The Avatar finally takes my hand. "Nice to officially meet you, Chief Hakoda." Such a polite boy.

"It's an honour to meet you," I reply, and I mean it.

"Great, great, so now you guys have finally met. So would you mind giving us a little privacy?" my daughter says, and I once again feel an urge to raise an eyebrow. Probably even both. She feels I'm embarrassing her before her would-be boyfriend. I wonder how Sokka hasn't noticed it all yet, not even with Toph's blatant hints. Apparently my son only sees what he wants to see.

"Of course," I reply and walk away, but not quick enough to not hear the Avatar murmur to Katara, "Are you mad at your dad or something?"

"What, not at all. Why would you say that?"

Why indeed. I can't help it, I'm smiling from ear to ear now. Have I just met my future son in law? If so, then good luck to him, he'll need it. My little girl has quite the temper.

o

That temper of hers was shown beautifully when the Fire Nation ship attacked. I could see that she was truly in her element, commanding wave after enormous wave. It was a majestic sight to behold. She looked powerful, almost invincible.

And now she's a small child again, weeping in my arms.

Just a minute ago she came running from the hold. "He left!" she cried.

"What?"

"Aang. He just took his glider and disappeared. He has this ridiculous notion that he has to save the world alone, that it's all his responsibility."

"Maybe that's his way of being brave," I replied, although I saw it as rashness, not bravery.

"It's not brave, it's selfish and stupid!" Katara sniffed. "We could be helping him and I know the world needs him, but doesn't he know how much _we_ need him, too? How can he just leave us behind?"

Her last words were like a punch in my face and a stab in my heart.

"You're talking about me too, aren't you?" I asked heavily.

"How could you leave us, Dad? I mean, I know we had Gran-Gran, and she loved us, but we were just so lost without you."

"I'm so sorry, Katara." That's all I could answer, but apparently that was all the answer she needed, because the next moment she flung herself in my arms.

She's here now, sobbing, her head bent on my chest, her slight frame trembling with every sob. If I hadn't seen with my own eyes what a powerful bender she is, I wouldn't know just by holding her. She's one thin, fragile girl. Then again, the Avatar is of even smaller stature and is said to be able to bend three elements already. Both of them are tiny and weak, yet great and powerful. They might have more in common than I have imagined.

"I understand why you left," Katara carries on, her voice faltering, "I really do, and I know that you had to go, so why do I still feel this way? I'm so sad and angry and hurt!"

"I love you more than anything," I murmur into her hair. "You and your brother are my entire world. I thought about you every day when I was gone and every night when I went to sleep, I would lie awake missing you so much it would ache."

"It really aches, Dad. So much," she hiccoughs, drawing slightly back, and I see it in her face: she's no longer talking about me. She's talking about him.

Although we have been reunited for three weeks now, in that time Katara has never once mentioned her misery over my leaving her and Sokka. I'm not sure if she would have brought it up at all, had the Avatar not disappeared. His departure must have triggered something in her – something that made all the deep-buried hurt resurface, and I'm sure her blaming me now is only a way of taking her anger out on me. The anger and frustration and love she feels for the last airbender. It's not about me. It's all about him.

"I know, Katara," I say, running my thumb across her wet cheeks. "But it will be okay. He will be okay."

"He has to be, Dad. I'm going after him. I'm going to find him. I'm going to take care of him."

"Of course you are," I sigh. I already know I'm losing her again, and this time maybe for good. She won't be my little girl anymore. She's growing up so fast. She _has_ grown up so fast.

A hopeful smile graces her lips, and at that moment only the blind wouldn't see the truth. Well, perhaps Toph would. She's remarkably perceptive.

Katara gives me one quick, final hug, then turns away and races to Appa, yelling to her brother and friend to get ready. Her every move is full of energy and determination once again. I know she will find and save the boy so that he can save the world and save her in return.

Soon she's waving good-bye from the bison's head, her cheeks flushed with excitement… and something more.

Yeah. Only the blind wouldn't see that my little girl is in love.

**FIN**

**A/N: reviews would be welcome. Also, if you liked this, try reading my other ATLA one-shot, a humor-centered one titled **_**No Way!**_


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